‘A police officer who knocked out part of a student’s front tooth with his riot shield during a demonstration against tuition fees faces jail after being convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.’

‘The Strangeways riot was the longest in British penal history and dramatically changed the way UK prisons were run. Twenty-five years on, four people at the centre of the siege explain their part in the drawn-out drama.’
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‘The Catt and T cases are both concerned with this important question: to what extent may the police lawfully retain records relating to individuals who have not in fact been arrested or charged in connection with any criminal offence. The Supreme Court has now had its say on this question – see the judgment here.’

‘In a decision handed down last week, the Supreme Court has decided that the police were entitled to retain personal data regarding a 91 year-old peace activist and a woman who got into a minor dispute with a neighbour, even though in both cases the individuals’ article 8 rights to privacy were engaged.’

‘R (Catt) and R (T) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2015] UKSC 9. A majority of the Supreme Court has held that the retention by police of information on the Domestic Extremism Database about a 91 year-old activist’s presence at political protests was (1) in accordance with the law and (2) a proportionate interference with his right to a private life under Article 8(1) of the ECHR.’

‘The prosecution of arms-trade protesters who occupied a British drone engines manufacturer has been dropped at the last minute, after the company refused to hand over evidence about its exports of weaponry to Israel, The Independent can reveal.’

‘Four campaigners have lodged a complaint with an official watchdog, alleging that they felt intimidated by covert police officers who were trying to persuade them to spy on their political colleagues.’

‘‘As a campaign meeting, it must have been one of the biggest yet, a hundred National Front supporters, three and a half thousand police and thousands of Asian demonstrators.’ This was the way News at Ten began its report of the clashes in Southall on 23 April 1979, midway through the general election campaign that would end with the victory of Margaret Thatcher. The report contained footage of police officers arresting middle-aged men in turbans, women sitting down in the road and demonstrators with their heads swaddled in bandages. The final images showed around twenty NF supporters, all men, giving Nazi salutes as they went into Southall Town Hall.’

‘In one sense, the possession claim in Manchester Ship Canal Developments v Persons Unknown [2014] EWHC 645 (Ch) follows a fairly predictable course. The Defendants were a group of activists who had set up camp on Barton Moss Lane, Manchester, in protest at the drilling program being undertaken by a company, Igas Energy plc. The Claimants had granted Igas a licence to drill on the land nearby and the protest was intended to deter the controversial fracking process which the activists feared would ensue.’

‘Eight women who say they were duped into forming long-term sexual relationships with undercover policemen have attacked the government’s failure to ban such behaviour in a newly published code of conduct. The Home Office policy suggests there will be a tightening of guidelines on undercover surveillance, but does not explicitly rule out officers engaging in sexual relationships with those being spied on or those who associate with the target. The new code – which is now open to consultation – merely says that intrusion into someone’s “private or family life”, even when they are not the direct targets of the surveillance, should be justified by the information that might be discovered.’

‘Demonstrators facing eviction from an anti-fracking camp have won 11th-hour permission to stay put while they go to the court of appeal. On Monday a judge at Manchester’s high court made an order for possession against the collective occupying land at Barton Moss in Salford, Greater Manchester. The order was to take effect from midday today. But eviction was stayed just before the noon deadline by the appeal court to give the protesters an opportunity to apply for permission to appeal.’